1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to communication devices enabling avatar-based communication. More specifically, it relates to control of an avatar image during avatar-based communication.
2. Description of the Related Art
Present avatar-based chat and messaging on devices such as cell phones and computers do not provide a satisfying human-avatar interaction. In these scenarios a user is able to see an avatar of the person the user is speaking with on the user's device. “Videophones” have been long-predicted devices that provide live video and voice in a person-to-person communication. However, although the technology is feasible, live video chat has not proven very popular, at least compared to voice-only interaction. One reason it has not become popular is that people are sometimes reluctant to display their current appearance and background location when they are in informal circumstances.
However, a user may feel comfortable being represented by a customized avatar that appears to speak in the user's voice. This concept, called “avatar chat,” provides some of the benefits of video chat (an experience that comes closer to resembling face-to-face communications than voice-only chat) without requiring the user to prepare his or her appearance or to sacrifice privacy, as true video chat requires. However, with current avatar-based chat, the user's interaction with the avatar's image displayed on the user's device (e.g., handset, laptop, and the like) has not been very natural or realistic. Although the avatar's face is visible, it does not engage with the user in a human-like or natural way, which makes the interaction with the user less appealing. For example, the avatar's eyes and head angles often do not conform or adjust to the conversation and to the head and eye movement of the user, as a person's eyes and head angles would do if she were speaking with the other person face-to-face.